130913 Is it possible to stop the arthritis in your knee from progressing?

Is it possible to stop the arthritis in your knee from progressing?

There is more and more scientific research identifying actions that can help prevent the progression of arthritis in the knees. The one main recommendation that holds steady throughout all the studies is to reduce the weight your knees are carrying by losing excess body fat. This means maintaining an ideal weight or perhaps even a little less to ease the stress on your knees. The other common thread, when it comes to protecting your knees, is to avoid activities that create stress on them and running is a prime culprit when it comes to damaging the knees.

Since exercise is an important activity that helps improve and maintain the quality of life and perhaps even prolong it, it is important to know which exercises are going to be the most beneficial when it comes to protecting your knees. The basic assumption here is you have to strengthen the muscles surrounding the knee joint, specifically the quadriceps, your hamstrings, and even your calves.

Strengthening each of these muscles helps keep the knee more stable, keeps the joint lubricated, and helps to absorb some of the stress your knee encounters with each step.

Recently, a Harvard study presented at the annual American College of Rheumatology, found that drinking pop, could be associated with knee problems in men. According to Dr. Bing Lu, an assistant professor at the Harvard Medical School, “based on our analysis, consumption of more than 5 diet soft drinks per week is related to significant osteoarthritis progression in men.” Osteoarthritis damages the joint cartilage.

Knee osteoarthritis is a deterioration of the cartilage in the knee. Cartilage is a smooth tissue at the tips of the bones that prevent the bones from rubbing on one another. Without this cartilage, the bones would rub together. Such a condition causes a person to have pain, sometimes excruciating pain, each time they move the joint.

As mentioned previously, a common factor in many instances of knee osteoarthritis cases, is the person is overweight, not just a little, but a lot. Couple this up with the excessive number of sugar, junk filled soft drinks consumed by the average American and you have a situation just made for poor health and in this instance it is poor knee health.

The scientists are not exactly certain why these drinks were associated with making the osteoarthritis progress faster but they did have some thoughts on it.

Phosphoric acid interferes with the absorption of calcium, which leads to imbalances that can further exacerbate loss of calcium. Most of the soft drinks on the market today contain phosphoric acid. A second possibility is those who are drinking this much pop are probably neglecting to drink healthier, eat healthier or exercise. According to Dr. Lu, “soft drink consumption may be associated with decreased intakes of protein, milk and dairy products, fruit, and a variety of vitamins and nutrients.